"The Star-Child" comes closest of any of Wilde's tales to resembling an actual folk fairy tale in plot as well as in theme.
A "beautiful star" falls, and hoping to find a "crock of gold," the Woodcutters rush to where the star fell. There they find a "cloak of golden tissue, curiously wrought with stars" and discover the cloak contains a sleeping child. The Star-Child is more beautiful than any other child in the village, but the boy is "proud, and cruel, and selfish", he despises other children of the village and no pity has he for the poor. When he is ten years old, his mother comes, disguised as an ugly beggar woman, but he rejects her, and he will be punished for that...
The very end of the story is quite unexpected... a happy ending, but...
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